Autumn is my favorite time of year, for many reasons. I love the cooler (not cold) weather. The colour change never ceases to amaze me, from brilliant reds and oranges to warm yellows and golds. I have strong emotional ties to autumn as well. The sampling below is from a day trip to Algonquin in October of 2014, where - thanks to high winds and rain the week prior - the leaves have just passed their peak. In my mind, that means there are more leaves on the ground than on the trees. There were still some vibrant pockets of color, though. I hope you enjoy.
This is the only HDR image I processed from the trip and overall, I'm satisfied with it. Interesting story - I recently started converting my RAW images to DNG on import, to save a little space but lso see what the benefits to DNG are in my workflow. I have found some improvements - images load faster, for example, and I'm not prompted by LIghtroom on how to handle the image if I choose to go to Photoshop.
However, I found something quite odd with HDR; I'm unable to view/edit the resulting PSD within Lightroom now. This was never an issue before, but now I get an error about not being able to edit the file. I have to retest by importing the actual RAW images for the HDR and see if my results change. As it stands now, I was forced to reduce the color depth to 16 bit before LR would allow me to view or edit the image. And making this reduction in PS truly did a number on the highlights in the clouds.
Camera Shake Reduction to the rescue! This image was a quickly "impulse shot" as I was leaving the Algonquin Park VIsitors Centre. Awkwardly handheld, while the camera was still attached to my tripod. The end result - at 1/80 sec was a slightly blurred image due to camera/tripod/human being shake. I decided to try Photoshop's Camera Shake Reduction filter to see if I could improve things and indeed, it made a subtle, but noticeable improvement. Good enough I was comfortable putting the image into this project.
All the telephoto shots seen below were taken using my beloved 70-200 Tamron f/2.8 SP lens. I have owned this lens for at least two decades. It's ALL metal, manual focus, heavy, but I love it. I don't often bring it with me these days, due to the weight, but I lugged it along on this trip because I knew the weatehr was going to be overcast, and I wanted all the light gathering abiltiy I could get in order to keep my ISO nice and low.
I'm glad I brought it. The resutling images are great. This lens displays excellent bokeh, too.
A Negative Clarity value gives this image a dreamy, soft focus look, while retaining brilliant color.
These last two images were shot feet apart, just as it began to rain in earnest (naturally). I've include both partly because I can't decide between the two, and because the foreground compositions make them both - IMO - very different. To me, they each tell a slightly different story.
The vibrant foreground color adds a strong visual/emotional connection to the background. The background is really what caught my eye in the first place, but while looking for a spot to set up my tripod, I found these red and green shrubs among the rocks and thought they'd be a good balance for the image.
Moving closer to the shoreline, a different story was to be told. Not as emotional so much as documentary, this image speaks more to the life cycle of the forest. The fallen leaves sinking into the water, where they will be used as food and become part of the lakebed soil.
In both images, I used Adjustment Brushes in the background to tone down the evergreens and pump up the birches and the maple sapling.
Despite negative reviews, I like make use of the Auto Mask to help in separating out the areas I don't want affected by the brush. It can be spotty at times, but it's easy enough to clean up those areas afterwards.
These last images were captured on my iPhone and processed using Instagram. Seeing as my phone is now part of my common "kit", I thought it worthwhile to include these shots as well.
Note: I try to come with witty captions when posting from my phone. Sometimes it works! In any case, I've included the captions/titles of my phone images.
True North
Lakeside Color
As Red as a Raspberry
Day-Glow
Call of the Wild